Đánh giá phim ju on 2003 năm 2024

Trong suốt 20 năm kể từ lần đầu xuất hiện, Ju-On (The Grudge) đã xuất hiện 13 lần trên màn ảnh rộng và trở thành một “tượng đài” trong việc gieo rắc nỗi kinh hoàng tới các fan yêu thích thể loại kinh dị.

Trong những ngày đầu năm 2020, The Grugde của đạo diễn Nicolas Pesce và nhà sản xuất Sam Raimi ra mắt, đánh dấu hai thập kỷ của “thương hiệu” kinh dị nổi tiếng này trên màn bạc.

JU-ON: THE GRUDGE (2002) – BIỂU TƯỢNG KINH DỊ THẬP NIÊN 2000S

Ra mắt năm 2002, Ju-On: The Grudge của đạo diễn người Nhật – Takashi Shimizu – bắt đầu một “đế chế” mới của phim kinh dị khi mang tới nhiều nỗi sợ hãi tột độ. Phim kể về số phận của một nhân viên tình nguyện tên là Rika. Rika đến nhà của gia đình Tokunaga để chăm sóc bà Sachie liệt giường. Điều đặc biệt là tại nơi đây, nhiều nhân viên xã hội được giao đến trước đó đã mất tích. Trải qua những sự việc kinh hoàng, cô nhận ra nguyên nhân thực sự về những cái chết bất thường ở ngôi nhà này với một lời nguyền khủng khiếp.

Ju-On: The Grudge gây sợ hãi với hình ảnh đứa trẻ với đôi mắt toàn lòng đen lạnh lẽo, tiếng kêu kẽo kẹt trong ngôi nhà cổ hoang vắng, con ma tóc dài chuyên xuất hiện khi các nhân vật gội đầu… Ra mắt lần đầu tại ScreamFest Horror Film Festival tại Los Angeles (Mỹ) vào mùa thu năm 2002, Ju-On: The Grudge nhanh chóng gây ấn tượng mạnh mẽ và được các nhà làm phim Hollywood mua lại bản quyền thực hiện. Tại riêng thị trường Nhật Bản, phim thu về 500 triệu yên và đã trở thành một biểu tượng kinh dị không chỉ riêng với điện ảnh xứ hoa anh đào mà còn cả châu Á. Đến nay, Ju-On: The Grudge vẫn được coi là một trong những phiên bản đáng sợ nhất trong cả loạt phim.

THE GRUDGE (2004) – KHƠI MÀN ĐẾ CHẾ KINH DỊ CỦA SAM RAIMI

Khi Ju-On: The Grudge được bán bản quyền cho Hollywood, hai nhà làm phim Sam Raimi và Robert Tapert đã giành quyền đưa tác phẩm này lên màn ảnh rộng. Trước đó, Sam Raimi đã nổi đình đám với loạt phim Evil Dead và bộ ba bom tấn Spider-Man của Tobey Maguire. Đạo diễn thực hiện phiên bản Mỹ của Ju-On vẫn là Takashi Shimizu. Với phiên bản này, anh mang đến nhiều “chất” Hollywood hơn cho tác phẩm của mình, với diễn xuất của minh tinh Sarah Michelle Gellar – gương mặt nổi tiếng với các phim kinh dị.

The Grudge (2004) giữ được tinh thần rùng rợn của tác phẩm gốc nhưng có phần hiệu ứng hình ảnh sống động, tạo ấn tượng về mặt thị giác hơn. Cảnh quay nhân vật Karen Davis của Sarah Michelle Gellar gội đầu và có những ngón tay xuất hiện giữa mái tóc gây ám ảnh cho người xem suốt một thời gian dài. Chỉ với kinh phí vỏn vẹn 10 triệu USD, The Grudge bất ngờ thu về 187,2 triệu USD trên toàn thế giới vào năm 2004 – gấp gần 20 lần phí sản xuất.

THE GRUDGE 2 (2006) – LỜI NGUYỀN TIẾP NỐI

Hai năm sau thành công của phiên bản Mỹ, bộ đôi Sam Raimi và Takashi Shimizu tiếp tục thực hiện phần tiếp. Bên cạnh Sarah Michelle Gellar từ phần trước trở lại trong vai diễn khách mời, phim có Amber Tamblyn, Arielle Kebbel, Teresa Palmer, Jenna Dewan và Trần Quán Hy – trong một vai quan trọng. The Grudge 2 tiếp tục khai thác nỗi sợ hãi bằng hình ảnh ma tóc dài rợn gáy đặc trưng của “thương hiệu” này. Với kinh phí sản xuất là 20 triệu USD, phim thu về hơn 70 triệu USD trên toàn thế giới, mở đường cho tập tiếp theo.

THE GRUDGE 3 (2009) – LINH HỒN THÙ HẬN NỔI GIẬN

Ở tập thứ ba của phiên bản Mỹ, The Grudge có một êkíp hoàn toàn mới, từ đạo diễn Toby Wilkins tới nhà sản xuất Andrew Pfeffer và Takashige Ichise. Đi theo hướng phim kinh dị kinh phí thấp, The Grudge 3 vẫn khiến fan của phim kinh dị thỏa lòng với nhiều chiêu trò hù dọa hiệu quả và rợn tóc gáy. Chỉ với kinh phí 5 triệu USD, phim đạt được con số 38,6 triệu USD và chứng minh cho sức hút bền bỉ của thương hiệu này.

Rika Nishina (Megumi Okina) works for a social services agency in Tokyo, although she's never seen any clients. When a new case comes in and they're short on staff, her boss has to send her out. Her first case is a doozy. When she enters the client's home, no one seems to be there, and the house is a mess. She hears scraping on a door--the old woman she is to care for is there, but in a semi-catatonic state. Soon after, she learns that there is much more wrong than bad housekeeping and a neglected old woman. There just may be threatening supernatural forces behind the scenes.

This film is really the third in the Japanese Ju-On series. I won't usually watch a series out of order, but this is the only Ju-On film officially and thus easily available in the U.S. I was very anxious to watch the American remake, The Grudge (2004), and actually watched it the day before watching this film.

The first 40-something minutes are closest to the American remake, but it was surprising that this film is much more linear. It's also more episodic. Neither of those facts are negative here, and both lend to a somewhat easier understanding of the broader mythology behind the Ju-On "monsters", which is presented much more clearly in this film. However, the episodic nature also means that the viewer has to pay attention to the various characters and their names, or there is a good chance that one will get lost--this story touches on many different people, in many different scenarios. Occasionally, there are characters brought into each other's episodes, sometimes as subtly as a name mentioned in a news report. These cross-references, which can also slightly break the linear timeline, are effective if one is alert.

There are things that writer/director Takashi Shimizu does better in this version, and things he does better in the American version. In this version, I loved the brutal opening sequence. Although it's somewhat present towards the end of the American version, it is much more effective here. I enjoyed the more traditional Japanese home--this film was shot on location in an actual house, whereas the American remake was shot on a house constructed on a soundstage. The Japanese house is more claustrophobic. On the other hand, the soundstage house was a bit grungier, which works nicely in the context of the remake. I liked this film's transition in the famous "stair crawling" scene (although I thought the flashbacks weren't necessary), and I also loved some of the more dissonant music here.

The biggest differences occur after the first forty minutes, when Shimizu expands the number of monsters. The film seems to threaten a Romero-like plague that I'd like to see explored more in other Ju-On films (if that hasn't been done already).

The bottom line though is that this is a nicely atmospheric horror film, with a creepy scene per minute. There were a couple very minor flaws--occasionally awkward performances or editing being the primary one, but overall this is highly recommended. It earned a 9 out of 10 from me.

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10/10

Non-Linear, yet Effective and Creepy.

Warning: Spoilers

Although the word "grudge" doesn't quite fit the bill as part of the title of a horror film one thinks THE CURSE would have been more appropriate but such is the "curse" of translation JU ON holds up extremely well as a horror film. Built upon a notion that when someone dies victim of extreme rage, the emotions are left behind and this overpowering, negative emotion will kill anyone who comes into the house, JU ON first gives us a grainy montage at the start of the story of what seems to be a man killing away his entire family. This sets the events that come next, told in a non-linear way so as to disorient the viewer of what has happened/will happen like for example, why is the old lady seemingly living in squalor in this otherwise impersonal looking place, and what part does her most recent caretaker, Rika (Megumi Okina) have to play there?

I've always believed that using subtly disturbing images instead of bringing the horror up front in a broad manner creates more of a punch for the viewer. Amping up the dread, even when the horror seems inevitable, creates a sensation of anguish because one knows that something is terribly out of kilter in this house. What director Shimizu does here with introducing the old lady in the unkempt house by having us see her hands weakly bang on the rice door, and then having her stare vacantly out to nowhere as Rika tries to clean up the place only to later meet the entities in the house, is unsettling as anything else that comes later. She whispers, mantra-like, something closely rendered to an "I told you so" and one only has to see the mounting horror in her old eyes to know something horrible is about to happen to her while Rika witnesses this and faints in horror. It doesn't matter that one sees the little boy running around and then mutely screaming in that cat-like shriek, or the shadow and croak of someone even worse... it's the inexorability in which this curse comes forth and attacks this old, defenseless lady, and then each person who has come/will come in contact with it, and when it becomes clear that the curse is not bound only to the haunted house but is in fact a growing web of death, the rug gets neatly pulled out from the viewer's feet, because safe becomes only a word and something wicked this way comes.

This is a film that people will love or hate. I don't think there will be an in-between feeling. The way that these ghosts manifest themselves as if they were part of the living, leaving hand-prints and footprints behind, the way that horror draws itself on screen in barely there suggestions like when Rika is wheel-chairing an elderly man who is making faces; we see the one second reflection on a glass door of Toshio, the malevolent boy , the way the actors react to fear which is anti-Hollywood, the non-use of swelling music but the use of eerie sounds, this is one very spooky film which can stand aside some of the greatest ever filmed. Quiet yet intense, relying on atmosphere and dread, JU ON is very chilling, and very effective. This is the horror that is rarely done today.

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7/10

Pretty Good

"Ju-On, The Grudge" is not an easy movie to find in America (or at least it wasn't when I first wrote this review) , and after hearing it hyped to the heavens in magazines such as Fangoria and Rue Morgue, and by word of mouth as well, I knew I had to see it. I finally tracked it down in LA and watched it the very first chance I got to do so.

Ju-On is a chapter story about a haunted house in a Tokyo suburb. The film begins when an inexperienced social worker shows up at the house and comes face to face with the horror within. The story jumps around from past to present, its chapters focusing on one character at a time until it has come full circle. Everyone unwise enough to enter the cursed house winds up dead, the haunting spreading like a virus. It seems that a terrible murder once took place in this house and the rage surrounding the act of violence has spawned its own evil curse. To enter the house is to be immediately infected and the haunting follows people home, driving them to near madness before dragging them away, never to be seen again.

Ju-On bears more than a passing resemblance to its popular predecessor "Ringu" and is nowhere near as frightening, but it's not a bad film by any means. Butchered mother-ghost Kayako is very Sadako-like, crawling around with her long black hair in her face and moving with unearthly jerkiness. Her blue-white face is quite startling with its huge staring eyes and occasional splashes of blood. Her ghost son, Toshio, is both sad and frightening, appearing both as a normal boy and a pale, wide-eyed ghost. Many of the films most frightening sequences feature the murdered woman Kayako: her head full of black hair peeking around a corner, her shadow moving down a corridor and filling a security camera, a head-on shot of her crawling through an attic at night with only the beam of a flashlight illuminating her. The sound effects are quite disturbing as well and the performances are convincingly well done.

I wasn't as scared by this movie as had been promised I would be, but that's what happens when you buy into the hype. I was simply expecting too much, and I got a pretty good ghost story instead. Ju-On is good. It's not great, but it's a decent, straightforward ghost story with more than enough scary moments to please most horror fans. Ringu was scarier, but Ju-On is a noble effort. Like most Asian horror stories, it remains ambiguous and open-ended, leaving room for both a sequel and the chance for you to decide for yourself what the curse of The Grudge really is.

7 out of 10 stars.

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8/10

Very Scary Japanese Horror Movie

In Japan, when the volunteer social assistant Rika Nishina (Megumi Okina) is assigned to visit a family, she is cursed and chased by two revengeful fiends: Kayako, a woman brutally murdered by her husband and her son Toshio. Each person that lives or visits the haunted house is murdered or disappears.

"Ju-on: The Grudge" is a very scary horror movie, based on a Japanese legend. In the beginning of the film, there is an explanation in this regard. When a person is killed in a violent way, his or her death generates a curse that will stay in the place where the crime took place. If another person visits the haunted place, he or she will be chased by the fiends till death generating another curse. In Western cultures, the fiend is generally trapped in a haunted house, and the person is safe and sound if he or she escapes from the place. This movie impresses because there is no bloody scene, only a tense psychological exploration of the inner fear of human beings for the unknown. The story is very simple and low paced, there are very few special effects, a great use of sound, no gore, but the creepy atmosphere is really frightening. Asiatic cinema proves again that in this moment their cinema is the number one in the horror genre. Unfortunately, the pretentious American industry of cinema insists in remaking and spoiling these Asian masterpieces.

I saw "Ju-on: The Grudge" for the first time on 02 June 2006. Today, 23 March 2007, I have just watched it for the second time with the intention of seeing the Japanese sequel and I startled many times with this excellent horror movie. I recalled the whole story and now I am familiarized with this Japanese belief of the Ju-on, therefore the non-chronological screenplay got better and better than in the first time that I saw. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Ju-On, O Grito" ("Ju-On, The Scream")

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10/10

A genuinely creepy Japanese ghost story masterpiece

Warning: Spoilers

Following in the immensely successful footsteps of RING, JU-ON: THE GRUDGE is an influential, creepy and utterly disturbing low-key ghost story from Japan, successful enough to spawn both a sequel and an American remake. This is Japanese horror at its finest: shot on a minuscule budget, utilising real-life 'run down' locations, and with a cast of subtle actors and actresses fleshing out the roles. Director Takashi Shimizu seems to have cast only deeply attractive actresses in his movie, perhaps to keep the attention of his male audience, and this makes the slow-burning proceedings very easy to watch.

The 'haunted house' storyline is very straightforward and there isn't much of a plot to speak of: basically, we see a series of interconnected stories showing how a series of characters are haunted. There are a couple of ghosts; one is a cute little boy, whose manifestation mixes fear and pathos; the other is a more traditional female spirit with long, dark hair and staring eyes, the sort who inhabits every Asian horror film since the similar ghost in RING proved so successful. JU-ON: THE GRUDGE dwells on scares and shocks all the way through, which is why it's so effective: it's 100% focused on scaring the viewer. There are many great bits, my favourites including the duvet shocker, the television breakdown, the bloody staircase set-piece at the climax, and the bit with the three dead schoolgirls. There's even time for a twist ending for those who like that sort of thing. For unsettling, deep-rooted frights and genuine creepiness throughout, JU-ON: THE GRUDGE comes up trumps and will be hard to surpass.

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10/10

Ow my freakin'god!

I like to think of myself as a grrrl who is able to handle a lot, when it comes to horror, though I have developed a preference for the more psychological kind...The kind that takes you by the throat and does not let go...

I thought Ring (original) was indescribably scary, especially since I watched it alone, in the dark ,in a deserted house, AND ON VIDEO, these factors definitely added to my level of scariness...The end of that movie, was literally spinechilling and I found myself clutching the blankets and holding on for dear life when in THAT movie happened what happened when it did happen.

Thought that was the scariest movie ever! Nothing could top it, right? Well I could not have been more wrong...

How totally unprepared was I for what was about to come when I popped Ju-on(original version again), in the DVD-player...

Ow my freakin'god, I was so scared through the whole film by the terrifying atmosphere throughout...

And how about the sounds...

When the ending came i was so scared I could hardly breathe, I had the imprints of my nails in the palms of my hands, and could not speak or move...

The aftermath of the movie was me being SO scared I was too chicken to go to the loo...

I checked my closets, and my blanket numerous times,and this went on for months... had nightmares too...and was totally afraid of the dark allover again...like when I was a kid or maybe even moreso...

I have seen a lot, but this one is definitely the most scary,and I do not think I ever wanna see it again...

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5/10

Very atmospheric but without a story...

Warning: Spoilers

Regardless its very high ranking on the list of 'Incomprehensibly Overrated Asian Horror Flicks', "Ju-On: The Grudge" isn't an entirely bad little film at all and it certainly contains more genuinely spooky moments than any other Japanese horror films released in the last 15 years. The problem, however, is that these spooky moments are merely snapshots and isolated images whereas the film as a wholesome is disappointingly trite and virtually plot less. The synopsis of "Ju-On" is actually no more than one phrase: "a family tragedy occurred in a house one day and the restless spirits of a murdered child and woman still dwell around", period! The film is divided into EIGHT little chapters, all of them revolving on how a certain person (a social worker, a police officer, a schoolgirl....) comes in touch with the house and its ghostly residents and then...well...DIES! That's all, really. After approximately the third chapter, you've pretty much seen it all and you can start getting annoyed with the total lack of chronology, story-background and logic. What exactly are the intentions of these ghosts? Why can't they find peace? All this is seemly of no importance as long as every chapter ends with a creepy scene of the ghosts scaring another person to death. But it has to be said, it is very creepy!! The little boy-ghost has the eerie habit of appearing everywhere (really EVERYWHERE) just staring at you, whereas the woman-ghost produces the most disgusting but effectively disturbing sounds ever! "Ju-On: The Grudge" may not make the slightest bit of sense, but at least it will frighten you a couple of times. It sure is better than all the "Ringu"-films, "Dark Water" and "Phone".

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9/10

An iconic classic for a reason

A horror classic and for all the right reasons. I am a huge fan of this movie and really appreciate what it does. This is my third time watching it and it only gets better.

We follow a group of people all hit by a curse. The curse dose all in it's power to kill anyone who comes into contact with it. It is a pure evil that doesn't discriminate.

The movie can have a cheap feel to it with it's effects, makeup and camera work, but I find this inspirering. It can feel a bit student filmish and it's clear the creators used the budget well. The team clearly had to be inventive with everything and it inspires a guy like me that would love to make a movie myself. The movie is still well done and still works amazingly for me.

The movie is well shot from a camera perspective and creates some iconic frames and moves. It works more like a fly on the wall instead of the chatecters POV. Showing us things we don't want to see that it would scare us. It does this very effectively. There is some wierd camera moves here and there but overall I find it really well shot.

The acting seems good without me having a great knowledge about the Japanese language. The preformances seem good and believable. There is some amazing scream queens in this movie, and the actors that plays the spirits do brilliantly. They stay in charecter and sell the lost spirits really well.

The sets are so well done because they look like the everyday world. They don't look produced like the typical American set, and invites you into peoples homes and something familiar to the viewer. It feels like an intrusion on the private and makes you want to check your hallways a second time before going to bed. The sets are also well thought-out, with details you'll notice after a second watch.

The evil in this movie is pure. It feels pointless to fight it and that it can't be stopped. You feel as hopeless as the chatecters and having an unstoppable evil is dreadful and depressing. The movie shows us all the affected and how they die and the evil seems unstoppable no matter what. Young or old, it doesn't discriminate, it's just evil.

The movie is full of iconic frames and sequences. From the stairs scene towards the end, to the elevator scene, the bed scenes and the wheelchair reveal. All are perfectly made, iconic and scary scenes.

The movie is tied well together but could easily also be wieved as an anthology movie. All the different segments are thier own mini-movie that all are well crafted on their own. No segments feels overshadowed and Works all on their own. The overall ties works great too though and towards the end you learn more and more about the curse.

Now here is probably the hardest sell about the movie but an aspect I liked. The movie is told out of chronological order and can be hard to follow the first time watching. I had problems following the plot the first time I'll gladly admit. But I appreciate watching it the second time and the third, I could apeiciate the movie even more. The movie really helps you to follow it's narrative though. It tells you early on that it's out of order and eases you through the different chatecters and tells and shows you how they are all connected. Don't be on your phone during this movie, pay attention and you'll have an easier time following the narrative.

If you couldn't tell I love this movie. I find it scary, well done and really depressing in it's subject matter. It is an iconic movie for a reason, it dares to do a lot and gets away with it. I would highly recommend it.

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I thought it would be scarier..

I remember when the American version came out everyone was saying how trash it was and that the original was soo scary! They lied.

I found it an enjoyable enough film but the story is unnecessarily convoluted. I did kind of wish it was scarier though!

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10/10

Unsettling

Unlike many of the "reviews" below, I'm not going to take cheap shots at those who might not like Ju-On.

I will say, however, that any fan of supernatural horror owes it to themselves to decide on this one for themselves.

I wholeheartedly agree with those who found this film almost uncomfortable to watch. If you are one of those whom this film really gets to, it is an experience as powerful as Ringu, Dark Water or the Exorcist. Scary, scary, stuff.

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6/10

Interesting but repetitive haunted house flick.

I saw the American remake before seeing "Ju On" and had mixed feelings about it. After seeing this original Japanese film, I can't really say that it is much better. Actually, I'd even say that the remake was more effective in terms of atmosphere. This original has the better story, and the audience isn't slapped in the face with a stupid "root" as they are in "The Grudge" (although, maybe that is fleshed out in the other "Ju On" movies, which I have not seen). The chronology play was interesting and fresh, but this is so important to the director, then there should have been more inclusion of time indicators. After awhile, the movie gets really boring--different people being haunted and attacked by the same ghosts in the same way, over and over again. I realize this is the point of the movie, but it doesn't make for a very entertaining time. My Rating: 6/10.

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8/10

Scary and very recommended as one of the best Japanese horror movies!

Warning: Spoilers

''It is said in Japan that when someone dies in extreme sorrow or rage, the emotion remains and can leave a stain upon that place. Death becomes a part of that place, killing everything it touches. Once it sees you, it never lets go.''

This explanation makes our movie starts. First we see Rika, a volunteer social worker charged for an older lady named Tokunaga Sachie. Rika sees Sachie alone in the house, and to make things worst, the house is a complete mess. When Rika is cleaning the house, she starts hearing noises that come from the bedroom closet, and opening the closet, she finds Toshio. Toshio is a young boy that Rika recognizes from a photo she saw in the house. Finding everything very strange, she calls the welfare center to report the incident, and just a little after, she is attacked by a black shadow with two big eyes. Each person that lives or visits the haunted house, is murdered or eventually disappears. Different characters , different moments and different years are shown through the movie.

I watched ''Ju-on: The Grudge'' almost three years ago,recommended by a friend who told me the movie was very scary. I watched it and I found it even more scary then I would imagine it to be! I told my father to watch the movie, and he liked as well.

I just discovered recently, that this movie is the third from the Japanese Ju-on series. (I am looking forward to watch the other ones.) Definitely the Japanese version of this movie is MUCH better and frightening then the American version, not to mention that is the original version. The atmosphere and music of this movie definitely helps in make you feel even more scary; that's one thing I love in Japanese horror movies: they make you feel frightened without special effects or monsters. It's all psychological and using the imagination of the viewer.

This is one of the most frightening films I have ever seen, and for sure made me stay scared for more then just 2 days.

Totally recommended for horror movies fans!

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10/10

Hark, the Grudge: and lo, I wet myself.

If you only love American cinema and hate everything not English, you'll hate it.

If watching Ringu makes you feel that you somehow know a lot about foreign movies, you'll just sit and compare the two. Which is too bad, because they're both great in their own right.

On it's own, Ju-on is fantastic. It boasts itself as a simple contained story without stretching on into some sort of epic. Where some movies will say: "We've got a weaved story that's real creepy", Ju-on seems to say: "You came to watch a ghost story, and that's what you're getting. Now sit there as we shove your heart through your butt-hoop."

Folks, if you have issues with dead stares and good use of dark angles and sound, it's extremely creepy.

Studios aren't giving Sam Raimi millions of dollars to re-make this film in Japan alongside its original director for nothing. If not my word, take their's. The only reason this film got noticed in the first place is because of its original two-part TV airings in Japan that created such a buzz, they re-shot it for film.

-- Or maybe you'll take the advice of people who've watched too many brainless popcorn summer movies and never watch it. Ju-on's an Excellent flick.

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6/10

a different style of haunting

Rika is a care worker for the social services. Its her first assignment by herself. Her duties is to look after an involute woman who doesn't speak. Even before Rika enters the house she doesn't feel right. The house is a mess, the rest of the family is missing with the woman left alone. Soon Rika finds a boy locked in a room; Toshio. But there is a more malevolent force in this house, that is consuming all how come into contact.

Ju-On is an interesting twist on the haunted house genre. With the multi-linear story line, we see how the people who have come into contact with the force surrounding this house have meet their fate. The atmosphere is eerie and foreboding, but its over all not scary. There are moments that your skin crawls; but it doesn't keep it at a constant pace. The multiple story lines does become redundant after awhile. They should have focused more upon only a few people and flesh out their story, instead of adding story line upon story line. They don't even add much information to the overall story.

I think the problem i had with this is that i got stuck in the cultural translation. At times the mythology went over my head, not understanding a lot of the significance that the story holds. Janpanese ghost stories are so different from western styles, so it takes awhile to understand the difference between the two. Janpanese ghost stories are more about the mood, while the American ghost stories are more about the scare.

Though it went flat during the middle, its still an interesting watch and help change your view on ghost stories.

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The film starts well but ultimately disappoints

Warning: Spoilers

I got this film from a friend who bought it (and its sequel) on holiday in Malaysia.

I'm not a horror fan, in fact I pretty much hate horror films because they are never scary, just cheap with gore thrown in to make up for the lack of legitimate scares.

Despite this I enjoyed Ringu (and hated the sequel) so I watched this. The story is about a haunted house in Tokyo in where every visitor ends up dead or goes missing at the hands of a creepy white ghost kid and its mother (also a ghost).

The appearances of these ghosts stem from a family who lived in the house until the father killed his wife and their child. Now the house is cursed and any one who goes in ends up dead.

The story is chapter based much like Pulp Fiction and tells the story of each character who enters the house. This works well for the first 45 minutes of the film. Each character meets a creepy demise and you get a spooky feeling from just watching these characters that appear to be safe nowhere from the two ghosts. Unfortunately the last 45 minutes see the chapters become nothing more than disjointed and confusing. The final chapter is so surreal its ridiculous and makes no sense. To say this film loses its way is an understatement.

The story is left open ended and while some may argue that this is to allow the viewer to interpret what has happened I say it is due to the writer and directors inability to wrap up what could have been on of the best ghost stories ever made.

In the films defence the ghosts of Toshio and his mother are very unnerving, especially Toshio, considering they are just people painted white. Toshio has these big black eyes and remains silent throughout the film. Put simply he just looks plain weird, appearing from out of nowhere to scare the character out of their wits.

Films never scare me but for some reason every time the kid was on the screen I felt cold shivers. The film is probably worth watching for this feeling alone and the first 45 minutes are excellent although ultimately you'll be disappointed with the ending.

The sequel is better but strangely loses its way at more or less the same point in the film as the first and ends in much the same manner. It just gives more of an 'ending' that the first film lacks.

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7/10

Wasting No Time

I watched the American version of "The Grudge" with Sarah Michelle Gellar some years ago and liked it a lot. Today I got a chance to see the Japanese original. Even though I saw it second and it doesn't have the same production value as the American version, I still liked it.

"Ju-On" bucked the trend a bit that you see with just about every movie dealing with hauntings or poltergeists; they jumped to level ten with the ghosts. 99% of horror movies involving a specter start off very slowly like the ghost is working up the nerve to fully scare the victim. In "Ju-On," because there are multiple victims, the tortured soul wastes no time. You have to appreciate a ghost who wants to get things done promptly.

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3/10

Ju-on can f**k off!

At some of my kid's birthday parties there have been twenty or thirty children running around in poorly applied body/face paint and I've not once been driven hysterical with fear. And there have got to be at least thirty phones at the office where I work—twice that amount if you include mobiles—but I've never filled my pants when they've rung (thank heavens!).

If, like me, you are not in the least bit perturbed by small, pale boys with black paint around their eyes or a telephone's ring-tone, then don't be surprised if you find Ju-on: The Grudge more than just a little disappointing. Frights are limited to the aforementioned phone-calls and the little lad popping up unexpectedly, plus the occasional appearance of his equally un-scary mother who croaks like a frog whilst crawling very slowly downstairs on her belly.

Perhaps, to a Japanese person well versed in the Ju-on legend, all this might seem like seriously scary stuff, but I was bored rigid, with matters made even more irksome by the film's excruciatingly slow pace and a pointless fractured time-line that ensured maximum confusion. Quite what Sam Raimi saw in this to make him want to fund a remake I'll never know...

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4/10

Overrated

Warning: Spoilers

First of all, before you watch this film, watch the katasumi and 44444444 shorts and the 2 ju-on the curse films released previously. I was pretty mad because I thought this was the first movie. Why can't people number their films instead of only adding cliche subtitles? At least the previous films are not very long in duration. Another fact that pisses me off here, is the non-linear plot. Movies should stop trying to be the next pulp-fiction and writers should just stick with chronological order. I mean, there is a girl that visits his brother, he locks her outside because he saw kayako, he dies and then the police find his body. In the next segment we see the girl phone calling her brother and in the beginning I thought this was before her visit to the brother's house but then she is killed by Kayako in her own apartment before visiting her brother. So which scene happened first? I don't understand. Did they forget to edit the film or just tried to make it into an anthology with no connection. I hate moments like that. Next, the characters are pretty bland, I mean they are a lot but the closest one I tend to be interested in is the police officer who investigated the Kayako case formerly but still he hasn't got any interesting dialogue and his encounter with the classgirl vision in the film confused me a lot. His death is also disappointing and also isn't explained. He just appears in a scene with his daughter and just passed away like that. The horror is decent though if you are horror film starter. Kayako and her son are some of the most disturbing characters in horror history and her rattle will haunt you.

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2/10

The Drudge

Well? Everyone raved over this film like they raved over Ringu, so I should've known better. But I never learn. Ringu was a failure because of its complete lack of imagination and its degeneration into an endless, pointless detective story, which meant that when resolution finally came it was all explained away and any impact was totally dissipated. Well they didn't make the same mistakes in Ju-On?well except for the lack of imagination. But along with that, they made an entire no swath of mistakes! A Ju-On is a type of curse, a spirit of vengeance that haunts a place when the spirit has died in the midst of a great rage. Whoever comes into contact with the Ju-On, will be destroyed by it. Thus we have a house, and we have various stories of people who come into contact with the house that contains the Ju-On. This should have been horrifying and freaky and disturbing, but at every turn, they succeeded in diminishing it to nothing. For a starters, we never get to know ANY of the characters, we meet them, and 5 minutes later they are being terrorised by the spirits. They are less than two dimensional characters, and I am not able to just accept dumb bad character writing like most idiot viewers. The key to making your audience feel fear and anxiety is to get them involved in the characters. They get an F for that one. Because of its fragmented style, the narrative is totally about the spirits and the evil they perform. Thus there is no actual plot, which should allow for some great horror sequences and very little boredom. But after you've seen the first 4 incidents, you realise that they are all exactly the same with little to nor variation and thus you sit bored for the rest of the film waiting to see if they do something interesting. The one time they do actually try something different, it makes to little sense and doesn't seem to be from the same film and involves a character who you never ever found out what happened to him, thus making it irritating and very much not interesting. So there is no imagination in the horror sequences, they get an F for that one too. And oh wow, look , it moves back and forth in time? so you don't actually really know what is going on half the time and have to stop and try and figure it all out, which, in a film that is meant to be a continuous driving horror fest, is not a good thing. It adds very little to the film and increases the irritation factor. They are remaking this one for the western world as I type. I believe that this one could actually be improved by Hollywood, as they will enforce certain narrative aspects and imaginative big budget horror sequences, which while not necessarily the best kind of horror, is a hell of a lot better than any of the trash that occurs in this version.

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4/10

not scary

This movie is only scary if you are kind of person who jumps at there one shadow. This is not scary. This movie is badly written. Badly acted. Good special effects. But what an awful ending. This movie is pooh pooh. Pooh pooh, pooh pooh. Don't see this movie. It is a waste of time and money. This is a bad movie. Bad movie bad movie bad movie bad movie. This story of man who kills his cat, kills his wife, kills his son. And then they ghost just decide to kill every one. Stupid not scary. I need more lines and I am running out of things to say. Save your money and don't see this movie. Awful awful awful awful awful awful. If you want to scared see Dracula (1931).

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8/10

Iconic horror

Warning: Spoilers

This iconic horror film is definitely an ever influental and appreciated landmark in the genre, and something Japan is naturally very good at historically.

The film is very finely paced, containing lots of slower and chapterized instances that builds up to very clever and well cinematographied jumpscares and other terrors in clever fashion.

The actors all do a good job at conveying the wackiness and sheer terror, and it is indeed a rather bloody and horrifying affair.

The cinematography, cutting and editing is very good, and the film has a very unique touch, to put it mildly.

Overall, indeed an iconic horror film, and one that is very much recommended!

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9/10

Honing the Idea of a Curse and Haunted House Narrative

This film I actually saw pretty soon after seeing the American remake. I did the same thing with The Ring and Ringu. I will admit though, I didn't really care for this one and it was the out of order timeline that messed with it. That is something I've gotten over as I started to understand the movies in this series. The synopsis here though is a mysterious and vengeful spirit marks and pursues anybody who dares enter the house in which it resides.

We start off first learning about what a Ju-on is. Sometimes when someone dies a violent death, a curse is placed on the house that will follow anyone who enters. It then shifts to grainy looking footage. We see Takeo Saeki (Takashi Matsuyama) gnawing on his finger nails. There is blood on him. He grabs a cat violently. We then see him taping a picture back together. When he turns it around, the woman in it doesn't have a face as that part is still missing.

The film doesn't follow a straight narrative and will jump around. It is told in six different chapters, each following a different character. The first chapter follows Rika Nishina (Megumi Okina). She is a volunteer at a Social Welfare Center. Hirohashi (Chikara Ishikura) is on the phone when she comes in, but breaks away to speak with her. He asks if she will be willing to go to a house to check on a client. The person that was assigned her took the key and then never came back. She reluctantly agrees, stating that she is just a volunteer.

She goes inside to find the place is trashed. There is a window of a bedroom door where she sees something running their fingers over it. It is an elderly woman by the name of Ms. Sachie (Chikako Isomura). She doesn't talk much, but Rika gives her a sponge bath and then gets her to bed. She then cleans the rest of the place up. She makes a call to Hirohashi to tell him no one has come back yet. Hitomi Tokunaga (Misaki Itô) calls asking for her brother, Katsuya (Kanji Tsuda) as well as after their mother. Rika then goes upstairs to finish cleaning. In a bedroom she finds a closet door that is closed and taped shut. She hears a cat meowing and opens it up. There is a cat as well as a little boy locked inside. His name is Toshio (Yuya Ozeki).

When she goes back down stairs, she sees Sachie laying down with a dark entity over her. It looks over at her and we see its eyes. The movie then gives us our story over the next 4 chapters, with the final one showing the truth behind everything. They follow Kazumi (Shuri Matsuda) who is married to Katsuya. What happens to his sister of Hitomi. There's a chapter where the police investigating what happened, one being Nakagawa Keiji (Hirokazu Inoue), and reaching out to the detective who was originally working the Saeki case. This detective is Yûji Tôyama (Yoji Tanaka) and the curse also involves his daughter. Her name is Izumi (Misa Uehara). With the final chapter taking the name of Kayako (Takako Fuji), Takeo's wife, and showing how all of this fits together.

Now that is where I want to shift over to break down this movie. I've already said a bit about how I got confused the first time that I saw this movie due to the non-linear timeline. I still got confused this time around and I'm pretty sure this is like the 4th time I've seen it. There are some things that are bit fuzzy for me, but I'm going to try to break them down a bit.

Something that I noticed for this version, as this is a bigger budget remake of the writer/director Takashi Shimizu's previous take of Ju-on: The Curse. That was more of a TV movie and it felt like that. This version doesn't give us why Takeo kills his wife. We know he went into a rage and wiped his whole family out. I'm not sure if Shimizu assumed that everyone seeing this saw that previous movie and that is the explanation, but I just know it is missing from this movie from what I gathered.

Yûji was the detective as I said who was investigating the original crime. There wasn't a lot to look into, but whatever happened messed with him and he retires from the force. Now it appears when he is reached out to by Nakagawa, this is when Rika discovered what happened to Katsuya and Kazumi. This explains why the house is in disarray when she arrives. Where I get confused though is how Rika's friend of Mariko (Kayoko Shibata) could have Toshio as a student since she is a teacher. By the time this goes down, he should have already been dead. Aside from that, I get what they're doing and I think it is an interesting way to present all of this.

I feel that this movie is also playing with time travel or at least using time as a flat circle. There is a moment where Yûji is trying to do something to the house and he sees his daughter as Izumi the teen. There's another moment where she sees her father as well in the house later on. This is kind of an interesting thing to play with her since both of them are touched by it and it ruining their lives as well.

The last thing before I move to another aspect is that I think the curse is a bit loose here. It does follow some of the people involved, but not everyone. The rules don't seem to be too concrete and really are just picking and choosing for certain set pieces. It is terrifying though that someone could be touched and then haunted for just going into a house like we get here. I do think this series later on plays with some interesting concepts with this idea.

Next I want to shift this over to the acting. What is interesting here though is that I don't necessarily know if we have a true lead as so many characters get their spot. Okina was good as this person who really is just wrong place at the wrong time. She has a good look though and I like what happens with her to start and close this film out. Itô has one of the creepiest things to happen to her of anyone. Uehara is solid along with Tsuda, Shibata, Matsuda and the rest of the cast. Shout outs to Ozeki, Fuji and even Matsuyama. The first two really get to do some creepy things and Takeo has a nice bookend in this movie.

I'll take this over to the effects next. They really don't have a lot of them in this movie and they do quite a bit with practical. Fuji really helps here with how creepy she is when she is crawling. Ozeki gets props from with as well. I do like the make-up to have them wearing black eyeliner and have their skin really whitened up. There are some others that are done up as well which worked. There is some CGI that really doesn't hold up for me. I do have to point that out. I also really like the cinematography here. They do a really good job at playing with the frame and having things that the characters don't see, but we do. That is something that really makes me uncomfortable.

Finally I'll go over the soundtrack and sound design of the movie. The score didn't really stand out, but it fit for what was needed. I did notice it at some of the more tense scenes, which works for me. What really is creepy is the sound that Kayako makes. I've heard that was done with a comb and running something along the teeth. The reason she makes that sound is both sad and wonderful for how it plays out for sure.

Now with that said, I wasn't very high on this movie and I've definitely come around to it. It has an interesting way of telling the story that can get a bit confusing, but I think the more viewings, the more it makes sense. I like some of the ideas that they're playing with her. I do think there are some things that are bit off with the story though and some of the rules of this curse. The acting is good. The effects are as well aside from some CGI. The soundtrack is fine where the sound design gets under my skin. The cinematography is also well done. I would rate this as a good movie that is just borderline on an all-time great for me.

My Rating: 8.5 out of 10

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1/10

Now I've got a grudge against this movie

I thought I'd check out this movie as it became available on DVD while its American remake, "The Grudge", was fresh in the theaters, and other reviewers had said that this movie was even scarier. Well, they must have been on LSD, because this movie was pathetic. I squirmed throughout the movie - not because I was scared, but because I was when-is-there-going-to-be-a-plot bored! The movie looked liked it was made on a budget of 12 yen. The "evil spirits" looked like actors who accidentally fell into a vat of Welches grape juice. At the intended "scary" moments, instead of reacting with "Oh my God", you end up thinking "Oh, You've got to be joking". If you liked The Ring, and thought this would be in the same vein (as I did), you will be very disappointed.

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10/10

possibly the scariest movie i have ever seen

Warning: Spoilers

this movie is a horror masterpiece, id seen the two American grudge movies first, and they impressed me, but somebody told me that the original was even scarier i had to check it out. the first time i tried to watch it on my own i turned it off after ten minutes because i was that freaked out, and i didn't even really see anything. but the movie has a very haunting and creepy atmosphere that grabs you, even though i had seen the remakes first, it took nothing away from this horror masterpiece. there are a couple of cgi shots here, but for the most part, the scares are very classic, and some moments in this, are scarily haunting, and stick with you. bottom line is you want a brilliant, scary horror movie, this is for you, i highly recommend

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"The curse of one who dies in the grip of a powerful rage."

Warning: Spoilers

~Spoiler~

Takashi Shimizu's Ju-on: The Grudge was the second huge hit that started the J-horror wave behind Ringu. And while this film does have some creepy moments, I think Ringu is a better film. I will also not win any friends with this comment: Shimizu's "American" remakes were much better films. Ju-on is a haunted house story. A mother and son were killed in the house and a powerful curse befalls anyone unlucky enough to enter the house. That's the story in a nutshell but it's a bit more confusing than that. This film suffers from a fractured timeline that makes the story hard to follow at times. It's told in a series of vignettes that aren't in chronological order. It does come together at the end, but making it there is quite an effort. If you ask me if you should watch Ju-on before the remake my answer is no. The remake utilizes many of the same scares, but to a much better effect and if you've seen them already their power is diminished. In effect, I see this movie as a workprint for the remake and Shimizu could fully realize his vision after having made this film. Shimizu is a hit or miss director with me, but I'm always willing to see what he's coming up with next.

Đánh giá phim ju on 2003 năm 2024

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